


Ariel and The Trashmouth

by RidingMalum



Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, mermaid au, mermaid!eddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 15:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13790967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RidingMalum/pseuds/RidingMalum
Summary: “And you are a mermaid?”Once again, Eddie nods.A look passes over the humans face, almost as if he finds it amusing that Eddie isn’t responding.“Do you have a name?”Eddie nods, and this time the human laughs. Eddie’s cheeks turn red at the sound. He makes sure to say a quick prayer to every sea God he can think of for it being too dark for the human to see.“Are you going to tell me what your name is? If you don’t I might just call you Ariel.” The human laughs again, but this time at his own joke.





	Ariel and The Trashmouth

Eddie isn’t really sure why he did it. His mother told him to never swim anywhere near the surface, and under no circumstances was he to ever let a human see him. Honestly, he would have been fine with that if she ever let him leave their cave, but she doesn’t. Eddie knows that she’s only trying to protect him and he doesn’t want to disobey her, but there’s only so much a young merman can take before he does something that he might regret the moment he does it. Like, for example, leaving the cave whilst his mother was catching food and swimming to close to the shore and getting himself spotted by a human. 

Okay, so maybe Eddie knew why he did. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has no idea how to get out of his current situation.

Eddie made an incoherent sound as he ducked back down, only leaving his eyes above the water. It was nearly dark and only a small group of humans had been on the beach. He hadn’t even meant to watch them for as long as he had, it’s just that they were all sitting around a fire (something that he has never seen until today) laughing and joking (something that his mother had refused to let him do with the other merfolk). He didn’t even notice when one of the humans got up and walked his way. 

“Hey,” the human says.

There’s no way that the group around the fire will hear them, they’re too far away, but when the human speaks it still makes Eddie flinch. He can’t think of any good outcomes if another person spots him.  

“Do you speak English? Or any human language?” The human asks. “Do mermaids have their own language? Why wouldn’t you have your own language? I mean, it would make more sense that you speaking any one of our languages because - well... you’re not human.”

Eddie doesn’t respond right away. He’s not even sure that the human expects him to answer. Instead, he watches as the human pushes up his large glasses and continues to ramble on. Eddie supposes that he could just swim away but he doesn’t. He just continues to float in the water as the human talks to him. 

 “I should probably go back to my friends. I don’t really know why I walked over here, it’s just, how many people can say that they’ve seen a real mermaid?” As the human says this his arms wave around. Eddie isn’t sure what’s amusing about it, but he finds that he has to hold back a laugh. 

“Don’t go.”

The words escape Eddie’s lips before he can stop them. At first, he’s not even sure that he said them out loud but when the human stops talking and doesn’t leave he knows that he spoke them out loud. 

“So you do speak English?” The human asks after a few moments of silence. 

Eddie nods, but doesn’t say anything. 

“And you are a mermaid?”

Once again, Eddie nods. 

A look passes over the humans face, almost as if he finds it amusing that Eddie isn’t responding. 

“Do you have a name?”

Eddie nods, and this time the human laughs. Eddie’s cheeks turn red at the sound. He makes sure to say a quick prayer to every sea God he can think of for it being too dark for the human to see.

“Are you going to tell me what your name is? If you don’t I might just call you Ariel.” The human laughs again, but this time at his own joke. 

Eddie wrinkles his nose at the name. “I don’t know who Ariel is, but my name is Eddie.” 

The human smiles, and Eddie decides that he likes it. 

“A cute name for a cute fish.” The humans says, Eddie thinks that maybe he can like the human’s smile without actually liking the human. “I’m Richie, but my friends call me Trashmouth most of the time.”

As if they heard, one of the humans from the group turns around and shouts, “please tell me you aren’t talking to yourself again, Rich!”

“That’s Stan,” Richie says to Eddie before turning around and shouting back, “I’m talking to your mother, she can’t get enough of me!”

“That one wasn’t even good. You’re losing your touch Trashmouth!” The human named Stan says before turning back around to his laughing friends. 

Richie looks back over at Eddie and exaggeratedly rolls his eyes. 

“You think I’m funny, don’t ya Eds?”

“Not really, no.” Eddie says, and then adds as an afterthought, “don’t call me Eds.”

Richie just laughs. “you’ll think I’m funny one day, spaghetti. But for now I can’t defend my humor cause I’ve got to get back to my friends, they already think I’m crazy and standing here talking to the ocean isn’t going to help my case.” 

Eddie frowns. He doesn’t want to stop talking to Richie just yet, and he really doesn’t want to swim back down to the cave to face his mother’s rage right now. 

“Will you come back here tomorrow?” As he says this Eddie starts thinking of ways to sneak out without his mother noticing. If he’s lucky his mother hasn’t come back to the cave yet and discovered that he’s left. If she doesn’t suspect anything it’ll make it easier for him to swim back out here again. 

“Are you asking me out on a date, Mr. Spaghetti?” Richie pitches his voice up really high and pretends to swoon. Eddie rolls his eyes but he’s pretty sure that Richie catches him smile. 

“Don’t call me spaghetti and no i’m not asking you out on a date, I barely know you! Can you meet me here again or not?” Eddie asks, flustered.

“Yeah, I can. I’ll be back out when the sun goes down. I’ll try and find a more secluded area so you don’t have to hide.” Richie says, this time in his regular voice. 

“Okay,” Eddie brings his hand out of the water to wave goodbye before diving back down under water. 

“Wait-” Richie calls out but Eddie doesn’t hear him because he’s already swimming down to the ocean floor. 

When Eddie arrives back at the cave his mother isn’t back yet. He swims over to his bed of sea shells and waits for her to come home. Once he lays down he starts to think of excuses to tell her so it won’t seem suspicious when he leaves again tomorrow. Because this time, no matter what she says, his mother won’t stop him from swimming to shore. Not when he has a human named Richie waiting for him there.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to write a mermaid fic and I guess it took the right ship for me to finally do it. I hope you liked it, please let me know what you thought of it!
> 
> Come talk to me at my tumblr **[here](http://dearestchampagne.tumblr.com/)**


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